RIM BlackBerry Bold 9780 smartphone

Cosmetic treatment?

Application status

Other upgrades compared to the previous Bold include a 5Mp camera, though there’s still no HD video recording. The phone’s mapping app remains weaker than on other smarties, though it seems a little faster and more accessible now.

Refined rather than revamped

And the BlackBerry App World is still tiny compared to Android and Apple equivalents. RIM says it’s not interested in quantity, only quality. Well, maybe, but the apps it has aren’t always the best, though they’re quite often the priciest.

Verdict

Overall, the operating system on this phone is still quirky and takes time to get used to, but once you’re familiar, OS6 is a decent enough set-up. Beyond that, this is a gentle upgrading of hardware design and spec, but since the previous Bold managed a respectable performance, who’s complaining? ®